Port of L.A. director Geraldine Knatz to retire

Geraldine Knatz, executive director of the Port of LA, announced her retirement Thursday from the nation's busiest port. (File Photo by Steve McCrank. )

SAN PEDRO >> Amid rumors that she would be forced out, the head of the nation’s busiest seaport announced her retirement Thursday through Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti’s office.

Harbor Department General Manager Geraldine Knatz will continue to helm the Port of Los Angeles until the end of the year. Gary Lee Moore, city engineer and general manager of the Bureau of Engineering, will take on the role of acting general manager until a permanent replacement is found, while Chief Deputy City Engineer Deborah Weintraub was named interim chief city engineer.

Moore will oversee the port’s 7,500 acres and 43 miles of waterfront, where almost 900,000 jobs in the region and nearly 3 million jobs in the U.S. are port-related.

Knatz, a Long Beach resident, is the first department head to depart under Garcetti, who asked all general managers to reapply for their jobs when he took over as mayor in late June.

Garcetti told reporters earlier this year that he anticipated some general managers would not be rehired.

As of Thursday, some general managers said they had been invited to stay in their current jobs, while others indicated they haven’t been told anything.

“I thank Dr. Knatz for her service to Los Angeles,” Garcetti said in a statement Thursday. “My agenda for the port is focused on maximizing its economic impact and minimizing its environmental impact to build stronger neighborhoods in the Harbor Area and across Los Angeles.”

Mayoral spokesman Jeff Millman was not available for comment.

Knatz was unavailable for comment but issued a statement.

Knatz was named to run the city Harbor Department in December 2005 by then-Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, who hailed her as the first woman to run a major port complex. She took over in January 2006 following a six-week confirmation process.

Knatz arrived at the Port of Los Angeles after 24 years at the Port of Long Beach, where she was the managing director of development and the second in command. From the beginning, she was tasked with making the port more environmentally friendly.

She championed the Clean Trucks Program, an effort that began in 2008 to reduce the number of polluting trucks operating at the port. However, the trucking industry sued in federal court to block the rules and was successful in rolling back some of the key facets of the law.

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Still, the port succeeded in banning old trucks from the facility, a move that officials say considerably cleaned up the air around San Pedro and Wilmington. City officials said recently that the rate of truck emissions have fallen 90 percent since the program began.

She also is known for her efforts to revitalize the Wilmington and San Pedro waterfronts.

Knatz has, however, recently been criticized by environmental groups for her stance on a railyard that would be built near the port by Texas-based BNSF Railway Co. Proponents say the railyard will improve efficiency by allowing trucks to load containers and put them on trains closer to the ports of Long Beach and Los Angeles, rather than having trucks drive 24 miles away to another facility. But environmental groups, including the Natural Resources Defense Council, have argued that the project will result in increased pollution in areas close to the facility, such as Wilmington and West Long Beach.

Months of declining cargo numbers — a result of business leaving Los Angeles for Long Beach — did not help her standing, insiders say.

Her departure has been rumored for months, but gained traction as Garcetti’s first 100 days of office approached.

Before the announcement was made Thursday, it had been unknown whether Knatz would stay on, port spokesman Phillip Sanfield said.